1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to flashlights, particularly for wrist mounting. In particular, it relates to a flashlight for mounting across the wrist and hand which flexes with the movement of the hand.
2. Description of Related Art
It is not an infrequent occurrence that people need to use a flashlight while both hands are performing a task and a regular flashlight cannot be held or a second person is not available to hold a flashlight for that person. There are a wide variety of situations that this occurs for and one solution is to mount a flashlight on the wrist. Wrist mounting of flashlights has been known since at least the early 1960's and whether the flashlight is mounted on the top of the wrist or the palm side of the wrist depends on the object or task needing to be lit.
Wrist top or side mounted flashlights are designed to light objects and the like away from the hands and not what the hands are holding or doing. The flashlight is mounted with the bulb facing distal to the arm and can be used in a variety of situations to basically see where the individual is going, rather than what's in the person's hands. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,112,889 to Mario issued Dec. 3, 1963 describes a flashlight that has a strap positioned around the wrist and the light housing spans the wrist and the back of the hand. The flashlight is described as useful, for example, for milkmen to look in the delivery box while holding the milk delivery. A problem with this design is that the positioning of this type of light interferes with wrist extension and to the extent the wrist can perform extension, it interferes/blocks the beam of light from the flashlight.
One solution to side wrist mounted flashlights being used is to allow the position and direction of the light to be flexible. The user moves the light on a swivel or hinge until the desired position is reached and then the light is left in this position during use. In WO 02/14737 Lee, published Feb. 21, 2002, there is a wrist flashlight shown mounted to the side of the wrist with a ball and socket hinge. The housing is designed to be positioned from the wrist and proximal thereto with the light on top of the housing which allows positioning of the direction of the light. Likewise, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,550,930 to Portouch issued Apr. 22, 2003, there is a flashing designed for mounting on top of the wrist from the wrist proximal thereto where the light bulb is in a hinged housing. These flashlights still have the problem of wrist extension interfering with a forward directed light beam. In addition, when the light needs to be repositioned during hand and body movement, one needs to have the hands free to make an adjustment.
If one wishes to light the hands while they are working, for example, during plumbing, carpentry, or other activities where one needs to see what the hands are doing in a poorly lit situation, a light would be mounted on the underside of the wrist. The above art does not teach use on the bottom of the wrist. This is mainly because the movement of the hand during flexion interferes with the light beam and while at least one inventor has suggested such use, it is clear that illumination of the fingers is only effective if the user keeps the wrist in a neutral position. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,631 to Fuller issued Nov. 29, 1988, a flashlight for the lower wrist is described for lighting the “fingertips”, however, as noted the flexion and extension of the wrist misdirects or blocks a beam of light.
It's clear that while wrist flashlights have been available in design for sometime, a flashlight that can be utilized on the underside of the wrist for lighting the hands during complex movements with cause flexion and extension movements is not available in the art.